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Report on Assessors Orientation Programme (AOP) held on 25-26th October 2018

The National Assessment and Accreditation Council is an organisation that assesses and accredits higher education Institutions in India. Assessing the quality of education offered by an institution of higher learning is the responsibility of the assessors. Therefore, bringing an objectivity and consistency in the way different assessors draw inferences becomes a major concern of NAAC. NAAC believes that the quality of the assessment depends on the quality of the assessor. Hence, the orientation of the assessor is a crucial part of accreditation. It is with this prime agenda that this programme was organised. NAAC organises periodically the Assessors interaction/Orientation Programmes with a view to equip/update the assessors with present assessment system efficiently and effectively. The Assessors Orientation Programme (AOP) held on 25-26th October, 2018 was a part of the above objective and assessors from different parts of country. Almost participants from 17 states participated and being oriented in tune with new Revised accreditation framework (RAF). Dr. Devender Kawday, Programme co-ordinator, Deputy Adviser, NAAC welcomed the distinguished guests and the esteemed participants to the Assessors’ Orientation Programme (AOP). In his welcome address, he briefed about the program schedule and new Revised Accreditation Framework (RAF) system. Dr. M. S. Shyamasundar, Adviser, NAAC, Director I/C in his Opening remarks presented an overview of RAF and the significance of AOP and expressed his deep concern over the quality of HEIs in India. He welcomed the distinguished guests and the esteemed participants to the Assessors’ Orientation Programme (AOP). In his welcome address, he recalled the poor responses from HEIs in the emergent stage of NAAC and the significant changes that he witnessed in the transition period in the outlook of HEIs towards A & A process, recognizing it as an integral part of Education management. Dr. M. S. Shyamasundar added that NAAC has revised the Assessment and Accreditation mechanism to make it more technology based, digital, scalable, transparent and objective. The Revised Accreditation Framework (RAF) was launched in July 2017. It represents an explicit Paradigm Shift by the use of ICT enabled technology. The current Assessors Orientation Programme (AOP) is also aimed at equipping the Assessors with salient features of the Revised Assessment and Accreditation Framework (RAF) and also to provide an insight in to the functioning of NAAC. Dr. Virender Singh Chauhan in his special address expressed his views about the concern over the changing demands of education in association with technology and ICT feature. He elucidated the need of self regulation and accountability in HEIs. He spoke about the RAF in the light of Global competencies and international accreditation mechanisms. He described the real challenges of Indian HE in terms of large size and diversity of HEIs. He also explained accreditation necessity and academic freedom, impact of NAAC, lessons of experience of NAAC and basic changes introduced in RAF, in a realistic manner. In Session-I, Prof. R. S. Deshpande, (Former Director, ISEC, Bengaluru) spoke on the Role of assessor for assessment and accreditation of HEIs and explained the workflow, challenges, and execution of peer team members during NAAC onsite visit.

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In Session II, Dr. Jagannath Patil, (Adviser, NAAC) addressed the gathering regarding various steps and modalities of RAF incorporating Assessment Outcome and stressed about the significance of changes to be brought in the RAF. He gave an insight about the statistic of accreditation of HEIs across country and also briefed about NAACs achievements nationally and internationally and showed concerned about the less numbers of institutions from India in international rankings. In addition to the overview of RAF, he specifically projected the critical points in connection with student satisfaction survey (SSS), Data verification and validation (DVV), Program Outcomes, Course outcomes, Program Specific Outcomes and new A & A methodologies. The second part of Session II was continued by Dr. Devender Kawday, Deputy Adviser, NAAC. He specifically mentioned the huge number of Accreditations completed by NAAC during the above period and it is the highest among the world class accreditation agencies. He talked about “Quality Indicator Framework (QIF)- QlM & QnM”, procedure of A & A, pre-qualifier & grade- qualifier, changes in the seven criteria, key indicators, SSR, Student Satisfaction Survey, fee structure, bench marks, penalty clause etc. He distinguished Universities, Autonomous Colleges and Affiliated Colleges in terms of Metrics QnM & QlM and their respective weightages. He also explained regarding Distinct Metrics of Autonomous Colleges and Affiliated Colleges by comparing with Universities. In addition, he differentiated QIF Metrics of universities as Input based, Process based and Output based. In Session- III, Dr. M. S. Shyamasundar, Adviser, NAAC, dealt with On-site Visit and Logistics. Basically he focused on two points that the Peer Team should be a Cheer Team instead of a Fear Team; and the visit should be for fact finding and not for fault finding with the Institution. He explained various aspects regarding the Time Management, Personal Management, and Materials management during the on-site visit and also different roles to be undertaken by the team during the visit. Further he spelt out that the team members need to be adherent to the NAAC’s conflict of interest policy, including the prohibition of paid consulting or job. He also pointed out that Peer Team members should be in an encouraging mood to the institution and also, a good team member should be polite and respectful, an effective communicator, a patient listener, objective and transparent, a good time manager, observant, analytical and judgmental, empathetic and open minded, expressive but precise in writing report. This session was later continued by Mr. V. Lakshmanan, Sr. FLO, NAAC, who explained the workflow of Logistics in an amicable way. He further explained how effectively Logistic work is taken care by NAAC with the help of Balmer Lawrie Co. (A Govt of India Enterprises). In Session – IV, Dr. Ganesh Hegde, Deputy Adviser, NAAC, spoke on “Demonstration of

Assessors Module”. He explained the Assessors module and details using ICT

integration. He also talked about the various stages completed till date and yet to be

completed in the ICT enabled RAF process of A & A. This session was assisted by Mr.

Mr. Samuel Lourdraj C.

In Session-V, Report Writing, Accreditation Outcome & Demonstration of Assessment

Module” (Online submission of PTR & PRSS) was handled jointly by Dr. Mr. B. S.

Ponmudiraj, Deputy Adviser, NAAC and Dr. Sujata P Shanbhag, Deputy Adviser, NAAC.

Dr. Mr. B. S. Ponmudiraj spoke on Report Writing and Accreditation Outcome. He

explained the importance of method of writing report and also spoke on the Do’s and

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Don’ts of Report writing. He emphasized on the criterion wise descriptive report

writing on qualitative metrics (Qlm) and need of team work to be followed by Peer

Team members.

Dr. Sujata P Shanbhag, Deputy Adviser, NAAC spoke about peer team assessment management and gave information about assessors dashboard, profile, non availability calendars etc.. Session – VI

“Introduction to Group Activity” was explained by Dr. Devender Kawday, Deputy

Adviser, to all the participants.

Session – VII The Group Activity begin at NAAC Campus. The participants were divided

in to seven groups sitting in seven different places in NAAC premises. The Group

Activity continues the rest of the day, on 25th October 2018.

On the day two i.e. on 26th October 2018 the programme continued with Group Activities till first half. Each group prepared the report and score card for the SSR and presented during the second half. The score given by all the team for the colleges was nearly equal and the standard deviation was 0.13. Each group made the role plays (simulation) Pre-visit Meeting, Interactions with Principal/ Management, Faculty/Students etc. The Group Activity, Role Play, Peer Team Visit Simulation, Report Writing, Open Forum etc. were part of the Programme. A total number of 49 participants from seventeen (17) states have participated in the programme.

After Lunch the programme started with the Mock Exit Meeting and presentation of the

Report by Chairpersons of each group followed by Rapporteurs Remarks of each group.

Session – XI - Open Forum was handled by the Dr. M. S. Shyamasundar, Adviser, NAAC

and Dr. Jagannath Patil on Revised Accreditation Framework followed by Closing

Remarks by Dr. M. S. Shyamasundar, Director (I/c), NAAC.

The programme ended with the Vote of Thanks by Dr. D.K. Kamble, Assistant Adviser,

NAAC.

The overall programme was conducted by Dr. Vinita Sahu & Dr. Shyam Singh Inda.

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